300 native chicken granted to Antique farmers

300 heads of native chicken were recently distributed to the farmer-beneficiaries of the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) projects in Laua-an, Antique.

The native chicken production project worth P210,000 seeks to help members of five farmers’ associations in Laua-an – Latazon Tigunhao Guiamon, Ratanila Cluster Level Association, Lactudan, Lupa-an, and Necesito FAs.

Each FA received 60 heads of native chicken breeder stocks.

Additional 300 heads of native chicken will be dispersed within the month to the FA beneficiaries of Laua-an.

“We are very thankful to DA for choosing our town as one of the pilot beneficiaries of SAAD projects. Laua-an is considered as one of the deprived areas for government projects. But now, with SAAD interventions, the livestock, poultry farmers, and also the women and persons with disabilities here are assisted especially that most of them had lost their livelihood due to pandemic,” said Arjun Garcinela, Laua-an municipal agricultural officer.

Garcinela added that their local agri office will provide the necessary technical support to the farmer-beneficiaries of the native chicken stocks.

“We are encouraging our farmers to immediately report disease incidents or mortalities of native chicken, and to get their stocks insured with the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation,” he said.

Ratanila FA president Marcelina Labanon expressed her gratefulness to the DA-SAAD for the livelihood projects including the provision of farm hand tractor and thresher, rice, and corn seeds, as well as goat project granted to their association since 2019.

“Ginahalongan guid namon ang proyekto nga halin sa SAAD kay bahul-bahol guid ang bulig ka diya tulad nga may pandemic. Tinguhaan namon nga mapadamo pa guid ang ginatugro sang DA-SAAD para makaambit man ang iban nga miyembro sang amon asosasyon,” Labanon said.

The Province of Antique is one of the two pilot provinces of SAAD in 2019. With 18.4 percent poverty incident rate, the province’s poorest towns became eligible to avail of the different interventions from seeds and fertilizers to farm machinery, poultry, and livestock animals. (S.M.H. Toreno/DA-RAFIS 6/Photos by G. Diaz)